- As China looms, Taiwan makes more drones for defense and the US military
ars-technica· 18-jun
Taiwan's drone spending plans for defense could also boost business overseas.
- Apple patches high-severity eavesdropping vulnerability in Beats Studio Buds
ars-technica· 18-jun
The vulnerability, disclosed 12 months ago, affects multiple manufacturers.
- Android verification is coming: Google confirms timeline and supported app stores
ars-technica· 18-jun
A new system service will roll out this month ahead of big changes starting in September.
- FDA advisors unanimously vote to approve Moderna's mRNA after agency drama
ars-technica· 18-jun
In February, a Trump official refused to review the vaccine.
- As global warming threatens corals, scientists search for reefs that can take the heat
ars-technica· 19-jun
Researchers say these coral strongholds may help repopulate more degraded reefs.
- Microsoft discovers new lightweight backdoor that steals cryptocurrency
ars-technica· 18-jun
Crypto Clipper spreads over USB and communicates over Tor.
- A bold satellite rescue mission came together in record time, but will it work?
ars-technica· 19-jun
"I consider this a success already, just from the fact that we're even going to try this."
- NASA asks Northrop Grumman to stop working on lunar HALO module
ars-technica· 18-jun
"We are reassigning most affected employees across existing opportunities and programs."
- Rocket Report: Rebuild begins at Blue Origin launch pad; Relativity targets Mars
ars-technica· 19-jun
A French launch startup is scrapping the name of its rocket, apparently due to a trademark issue.
- The UK will scan asylum-seekers’ faces for age checks—despite knowing the tech is flawed
ars-technica· 20-jun
Tests of age-verification technology show the risks of life-altering errors.
- Entrepreneurs in Nairobi make the case for going solar
mit-tech-review· 17-jun
Most of Kenya’s power grid runs on renewables. But with 25% of communities lacking centralized electricity, the nation is looking to off-grid solar to hit its goal of delivering universal electricity access by 2030 without driving up emissions. The ever-improving economics of solar technology have helped. A couple of years ago, a panel cost about…
- Hacking the atmosphere: Geoengineering gets a reality check
mit-tech-review· 17-jun
Jim Franke pulls away the cover page of a presentation on the wraparound desk in his office, revealing an illustration of an odd-looking aircraft with massive wings stretching out from a stubby fuselage. The uncrewed plane is soaring thousands of meters higher than commercial jets fly—so high you can see the curvature of the Earth.…
- The Download: a reality check for geoengineering and the science of interoception
mit-tech-review· 17-jun
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Hacking the atmosphere: geoengineering gets a reality check Solar geoengineering, the controversial idea that we could deliberately intervene in the climate system to counteract global warming, is moving beyond computer simulations…
- The search for dark matter has been blown wide open
mit-tech-review· 18-jun
Underneath an Apennine massif, below the Jinping Mountains of Sichuan, and at the bottom of a South Dakota mine, there is a cosmic hunt afoot. Isolated deep beneath these rocky shields, massive detectors filled with liquid xenon aim to make the first direct detections of dark matter, the long-sought invisible substance whose gravity has sculpted…
- Geoengineering still faces major practical challenges
mit-tech-review· 18-jun
Solar geoengineering is often portrayed as a sort of emergency brake. Something along the lines of Pull in case of climate emergency to scatter light-reflecting particles to bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere and cool the planet. But it might be less like a simple brake and more like a complicated, entirely unsolved puzzle. Some…
- The Download: a new hunt for dark matter and Kenya’s case for going solar
mit-tech-review· 18-jun
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The search for dark matter has been blown wide open For decades, physicists have hunted for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a leading candidate for dark matter. But their search has…
- The inevitable weakness of metrics
mit-tech-review· 19-jun
There are plenty of useful things a metric can reveal. There are even more it can obscure or corrupt. It took me well over a decade of tracking my own life in ever greater detail to fully appreciate this duality, which probably reveals something about both me and the nature of measurement. Like a lot…
- Brain-computer interface trials are taking off
mit-tech-review· 19-jun
This week, I covered the story of Casey Harrell—a man with ALS who is “the first power user” of a brain implant, according to the researchers who worked with him. Harrell is paralyzed and unable to speak coherently without the device. He has now spent almost three years using a brain-computer interface (BCI) that enables…
- A startup claims it broke through a bottleneck that’s holding back LLMs
mit-tech-review· 19-jun
Miami-based AI startup Subquadratic came out of stealth mode last month with a huge claim. It announced that it had solved a mathematical bottleneck that had been holding back large language models for almost a decade. The details were thin, and many people were unconvinced. But Subquadratic has started to bring the receipts, sharing the…
- The Download: AI bottleneck debates, and BCI trials take off
mit-tech-review· 19-jun
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. A startup claims it broke through a bottleneck that’s holding back LLMs AI startup Subquadratic came out of stealth last month with a huge claim: it had solved a mathematical bottleneck…
- Telegram ban in India sparks a rush to VPNs, rival apps
techcrunch· 19-jun
Telegram argues India should block specific content, not an entire platform used by millions.
- Aura’s impressive e-ink photo frame doesn’t even look digital
techcrunch· 19-jun
What’s the most cliche possible gift you can give a relative? A digital photo frame, displaying a rotating slideshow of family photos. Now Aura has completely refreshed this product space with its gorgeous Aura Ink frame, which uses e-ink to create a display that doesn’t even look digital. Digital frames have always been so popular […]
- Billionaire Ambani wants AI in every call, app, and home
techcrunch· 19-jun
Reliance is weaving AI into telecom services used by more than 500 million people.
- From PGP to Mythos: a brief history of export controls that didn’t stop anyone
techcrunch· 19-jun
For the last 30 years, stopping the flow of cybersecurity-related software has proven to be ineffective. It's unclear why it would work now with Anthropic’s cybersecurity model Mythos.
- Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M
techcrunch· 19-jun
Fusion startups have raised $7.1 billion to date, with the majority of it going to a handful of companies.
- Go eyes robotaxis and acquisitions after Japan’s biggest IPO of 2026. Here’s why it matters
techcrunch· 19-jun
Go’s IPO — Japan’s biggest so far this year — has done more than provide a much-needed boost to the country’s languishing listing season. It has also supplied the taxi-hailing app with the capital required to address an existential issue: Japan’s shortage of drivers. Go, which went public Tuesday, plans to use the ¥88.6 billion […]
- He made your free video player run smoothly. Now he’s doing that for robots.
techcrunch· 20-jun
French serial entrepreneur and open-source legend Jean-Baptiste Kempf has been building Kyber, an infrastructure layer to control remote devices in real time.
- The CEO of Allbirds’ new AI biz has a plan, but no team
techcrunch· 19-jun
Call it a startup with a sole founder and a very large seed round, but what's next is less clear.
- The US says ASML’s top chip tool may be in China, but how?
techcrunch· 19-jun
There's a commercial logic that cuts against the idea that ASML would risk its export license to arm a Chinese customer.
- Is the US government’s Anthropic ban accidentally helping the brand?
techcrunch· 19-jun
Just as last week was ending, the US government forced Anthropic to pull its two newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers allegedly found a way to bypass Fable 5’s guardrails. Cybersecurity researchers have since signed an open letter calling the move dangerous, and Anthropic itself noted the same jailbreaks exist in other models. So is […]
- The film about Sam Altman has been dropped by Amazon MGM
the-verge· 19-jun
Luca Guadagnino's film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Artificial, has reportedly been dropped by Amazon MGM. The film, which stars Andrew Garfield and covers the rollercoaster five days in 2023 spanning Altman's termination and reinstatement as CEO, had been in the works for about a year. The cast also includes A Complete Unknown actress Monica Barbaro as OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, and Anora's Yura Borisov as OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. In a statement to Deadline, the studio said it believes the movie "will be better served if it were released by a different studio and is working closely with the filmmak … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Our long national sunscreen nightmare is almost over
the-verge· 19-jun
You need a quarter teaspoon for your face alone, a half teaspoon if you include the neck (which you should!) This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. On TikTok, the tanned youths are explaining why they no longer wear sunscreen. In one video, a young man films himself in the ocean while describing how you can naturally build up a "solar callus" or sun tolerance to getting burned. (You can't.) In another, a young woman confidently states that eating healthy foods full of polyphenols and other antioxidants will help make your body more resilient to sunburn. (Antioxidants help w … Read the full story at The Verge.
- The NTS Radio Player brings the best of internet radio to your hi-fi
the-verge· 19-jun
Have I found my Chromecast Audio replacement? | Image: NTS Radio NTS Radio and Swedish audio company Atonemo have teamed up on a dedicated player that brings NTS's genre-defying mixes and streaming stations to almost any stereo or speaker setup. And, like Atonemo's existing Streamplayer, you can also listen to your favorite streaming services with it, using AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, or Tidal Connect. The $179 NTS Radio Player puts out 24-bit / 192kHz audio over a standard 3.5mm audio jack and comes with an adapter cable for connecting to RCA on your vintage hi-fi system, or whatever other speakers you have lying around. The top of the device has two buttons for tuning in directly to NTS 1 … Read the full story at The Verge.
- T1 Phone PR firm is ‘not assisting Trump Mobile any further’
the-verge· 19-jun
Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We don't have the phones we preordered yet, but this week we received unexpected news from Trump Mobile's media relations manager. If you've been following my reporting on the Trump phone, you'll know that Trump Mobile doesn't exactly keep open lines of communication with the media. That doesn't look to be changing, with the company no longer working with its long-term media relations firm. Poplar Group has represented Trump Mobile since at least last June, when the company's founding partner Chris Walker gave a statement to USA Today, insisting at the time that "T1 … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Nothing cancels this year’s CMF phone due to RAM prices
the-verge· 19-jun
Nothing's next budget phone is the latest victim of RAMageddon. As 9to5Google reports, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis announced in a post on X that a follow-up to the CMF Phone 2 Pro won't be coming this year: We were working on a successor but with memory prices where they are right now, we can't build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF. As a result, we've decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year. Last week, Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei also said the RAM shortage has impacted the cost of the company's mid-range phone, stating, "For Phone 4A, memory costs doubled between … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Moves of the Diamond Hand is an unfinished, irresistibly weird dice-based RPG
the-verge· 20-jun
From its opening minutes, Moves of the Diamond Hand is upfront about what it offers: You're going to have a lot of strange conversations, and you're going to roll a lot of dice. Get on board with this proposition, and the reward is one of the most creative roleplaying games I've seen in years, even if its many mysteries won't be resolved until 2027. Moves of the Diamond Hand is an Early Access videogame available on PC, macOS, and steamOS (including the Steam Deck, where I played it) from musician and game designer Cosmo D. The game looks and feels like a 2000s-era first-person RPG or immersive sim: environments are grimy, stark, and blocky … Read the full story at The Verge.
- NASA selects Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for a 2028 mission to Mars
the-verge· 19-jun
Relativity Space’s CEO is former Google executive Eric Schmidt. | Image: Alexander Tamargo / Getty Images Relativity Space, the rocket company led by former Google executive Eric Schmidt, was picked to launch NASA's Aeolus payload to Mars in 2028, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. Under a new public-private partnership, Relativity Space will provide the "spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations" to fly Aeolus to Mars, where the payload will "provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds." The Aeolus payload will have four instruments on board for studying the Martian atmosphere, which NASA says will "directly inform entry, descent, and landing systems and support safer, more predictable mis … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Toy Story has the right take on tech
the-verge· 20-jun
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 133, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy belated Juneteenth, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Sam Bankman-Fried and PE Guy and admin nights (which we should totally all do together one of these days), listening to Paul McCartney on Song Exploder, trudging through the bugs of the iOS 27 beta in order to use the good new Siri, once again trying and failing to switch to YouTube Music, free trial-hopping my way through the World Cup, finally upgrading my camera setup with the E … Read the full story at The Verge.
- SwitchBot’s Standing Circulator Fan is worth fighting for
the-verge· 20-jun
I’m a fan. I can't remember the last time I got excited about a fan. Normally, I just buy whatever Vornado or Dreo model fits my budget, but that was before I started testing the battery-powered Standing Circulator Fan from SwitchBot. As the name indicates, the SwitchBot fan is a 3D circulator - a fancy way of saying that it can tilt up, down, left, and right to push a decent amount air around a room. It looks okay, despite all the plastic, is relatively quiet, runs for hours on battery, has an integrated nightlight, transforms from a desktop to standing fan in seconds, and works on its own or as part of a smart home. There's a lot to like here. Over … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Hue’s wired wall modules bring non-smart lights into its ecosystem
the-verge· 19-jun
The new Wired Wall Switch Modules fit behind existing switches. | Image: Signify Smart lighting company Philips Hue has launched its first wired wall modules. Installed behind existing wall switches, the new devices bring non-smart lights into the Hue ecosystem for the first time. Hue also announced new Play table and floor lamps that are more affordable versions of its Signe series, along with upgrades to its E14 candle bulbs that add a broader white light spectrum and Matter-over-Thread compatibility. The new lights are now available globally; however, the Wired Wall Switch Modules are Europe-only. Signify CTO George Yianni told The Verge that there are currently no plans to launch them in the US, but the company woul … Read the full story at The Verge.